9TH ANNUAL CHURCHILL CLUB TOP TEN TRENDS EVENT

This year's Churchill Club Top Ten Trends Event was better than last year's. More engaging predictions, chemistry among the panelists was better, and good jabs in between. Christine and I attended to listen to Tony, my co-founder at GoingOn Networks, moderate and four top VCs give their predictions in the world of technology and entrepreneurship:

John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Roger McNamee, Co-Founder, Elevation Partners
Joe Schoendorf, Venture Partner, Accel Partners

Steve Jurvetson is brillant and showed it again with his discussion and predictions about Moore's Law bifurcating and the first synthetic life form being created. Many people in Silicon Valley question his track record as a VC. If all his talk about nanotechnology turns into huge gains years from now, then his brillance as an investment professional will also shine.

Roger McNamee is a bright guy too and I like the manner in which he talks and thinks. His prediction on how the shift from "passive media" to "active media" will lead to the detriment of mainstream media and a shakeout of the current advertising industry is obvious for many, but an important point to be reminded of.

For decades we lived in an era of lazy interactivity and entertainment. People enjoyed sitting down in front of their TVs after a long day and letting "big media" spoon-feed them content. Now we are experiencing a shift right before our eyes. Over the past few years, we've seen dramatic changes in how people consume their content. YouTube, iTunes, Napster, and others contributed to changing the tide of traditional entertainment consumption. It's a very cool time to be alive in.

Anyway, back to the Churchill Club event. John Doerr was John Doerr. Smart, insightful, and beating his "green" drum again. It was good because I sometimes think about the next startup I want to build and lean towards the mobile space, but last night made me consider going into clean tech a few years down the road.

More coverage from the San Jose Mercury News here. Dean Takahashi has more from his blog here, and the HYPERtext blog here.